Just not long ago I thought to myself “maybe its good seongjun is dead at least he wont be a victim of a horrible romantic plotpoint which suddenly are trendy in this manhwa” ALAS… i dont understand. This doesnt even feel like Park Taejun o.o I read all his series and love him, but christ the romantic plotlines in there are horrendous. It wasnt like this in the beginning.
I'm at a loss as well. Like, sure, I've been annoyed by the romantic subplots in this comic in the past. The ch 85 era wasn't necessarily bad writing, but I hated it because it perpetuated the toxic standard of "people in (m/f) relationships aren't allowed to have friends of another gender." Incel Munseong era came out of nowhere and totally wrecked Munseong's character for me, but at least it didn't directly contradict the rest of the comic.
120gate (yeah that's what I'm calling it) isn't just a forced, unnecessary romantic subplot. It's TERRIBLE writing. We SAW, just 30 chapters ago, that Seongjun was not an uwu soft misunderstood sad boy who was only doing mean things because big bad Jinho made him. He CHOSE to beat a group of teenagers near to death because they dared to threaten his high-rolling cushy lifestyle. Joo Taesan and 244 had zero part in him making that choice. So to try and tell the audience that noooo, he wasn’t actually mad at Hobin, really! ...do you think we're stupid, orrrr?
Genuinely, up until now SJ had been a fantastic villain. The perfect balance of sympathetic tragic backstory where he was a victim of his circumstances, but ALSO (IMPORTANTLY!!) a total piece of shit who does bad things because they benefit him and doesn't care. How they managed to ruin that after he's already dead. Amazing.
Honestly tho, I'm gonna start reading this comic through my AU lens. 😄 You don't have to totally take out his relationship with Heeyeon! Just...make him stay himself. Let her have more development before immediately getting bumped off. Let 244...actually, 244 can stay crazy and jealous. He's fine qksvskwbwj
